1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to methods of inducing ring-opening polymerization on a surface of biodegradable polymeric materials and the medical devices formed therefrom.
2. Background of Related Art
Polyesters represent a commercially important class of polymers. One route to forming polyesters is via ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters. For example, ε-caprolactone can by polymerized to polycaprolactone, which is widely used as a biocompatible material for the fabrication of implantable devices. Known ring-opening polymerization methods may require the addition of a catalyst to drive the reaction. Such methods often produce polymers which include residual amounts of the catalysts. That is to say, not all of the catalyst provided to drive the polymerization reaction may be utilized thereby being left within the polymeric material. The residual or excess catalyst is an impurity which may make decrease the strength of the polymeric material. In addition, upon degradation, the release of the residual catalyst from the polymeric material may be toxic to the environment and/or the patient in which the polymeric material is implanted. Therefore, a need exists for improving polymerization processes which produce biodegradable polymeric materials including reduced amounts of impurities and/or reduced amount of residual catalysts.